Primary English Tips | Grammar Must-knows for MCQ

If you are not careful, you are going to get trapped! Source: loopdeloop.org

My children will know that I often talk to them about grammatical traps and the common errors that are made in the grammar MCQ section. Below is a list of these questions that children often make mistakes in. This list is helpful in highlighting the errors and how to attempt such questions but to do well, reading this list alone is not going to help. Practice makes perfect so do be diligent and practise if you really want to secure these marks.

Common Grammatical Traps

1. who vs whom

Who is used for doer while whom is used for the receiver of the action.Look atthe word after the blank:

This is the boy ___________ (who) broke the plate.This is the boy ___________(whom) Isaw just now.

broke --> verb --> whoI --> not a verb --> whom

Trickier situations:

For trickier questions like those below, use he/him or they/them to help you.

"He/they" are subject pronouns and indicate the doer of an action, hence we will use "who".

"Him/them" are object pronouns and indicate the receivers of an action, hence we will use "whom".

2. If it is a question, answer the question._________ can I speak to about the matter?You can speak to he/him.him > receiver > whom

_________ ate the last cupcake?He/him ate the last cupcake.he > doer > who

2. if conditionals

Look for tense words (verbs like has, is, kicked) and follow through the tense pattern.

If I find the ring, I will return it.If I found the ring, I would return it.If I had found the ring, I would have returned it.

*Special Case 1 - unlikely situations

Take note of impossible/unlikely situations. The verb "were" is to be used regardless of singular or plural subject:

If I were a bird, I would fly.If she were the principal, I would cancel all lessons.

Special Case 2 - Negative Adverbs

Take note of adverbs like never, rarely, seldom, hardly and scarcely. These adverbs have a negative sense and even when used with a positive statement, they change it to become negative. Hence, the question tag will be positive.

You (do) seldom visit the library, do you?

She (does) hardly speaks about her father, does she?

3. subject-verb agreement: 'of' (e.g. Three bags of sugar)

The question you need to ask yourself is, "What am I counting? The bags or the sugar?"

Whenever you encounter a question with "of", 1. box up "of" 2. look at the word before it.

Three bagsof sugar are carried to the car.A few bottles of milk were broken yesterday.Noneof the children is injured.